The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Duck59 said:
A murmuration of starlings...one of the great collective nouns. Our local starlings never really get beyond a mur.

Apropos of nothing, are spellcheckers not the most irritating things going? I was writing an article this afternoon and my spellchecker was quite happy with Herculaneum, but objected to Pompeii. Bizarre.
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I never use a spellchecker for that reason. I particularly hate predictive text on phones and always switch it off. Luckily I have always been good at spelling.
 
I'm good at spelling, but we all make typos, so I feel happier with the spelling check on. It catches the twisted finger errors.

Why would I want to spell Pompeii wrong, though?
 
creative said:
That's interesting. So you are doing an art course online? How does that work, e.g do you photo your artwork and submit it for appraisal?

I am interested in art too (I dabble in watercolours mostly). What kind of art do you do e.g. in what medium - abstract/still life etc.
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I have done all sorts of things on line but not art, not yet. There are lots of online art courses, from art history up to drawing and painting, and there are some free ones. My art interests were mainly calligraphy and associated painting but the old shaky hands and eye problems have been making it a bit difficult lately. I used to be a professional model maker too many years ago. My original training was as a draughtswoman in the 1960s, so it's all the technical type of drawing I like to do. My old calligraphy teacher/mentor said the training came through in my work. I was never any good at art at school - maybe that's why - not enough straight lines :laugh: I used mainly acrylics as they are a pretty across the board medium. It is all something I want to take up again but my health has been against it all these past few years. I've got to sort out my old hobbies room too - it's turned into a store room!
 
Duck59 said:
I'm good at spelling, but we all make typos, so I feel happier with the spelling check on. It catches the twisted finger errors.

Why would I want to spell Pompeii wrong, though?
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I use Swype on my phone and tablet. It's amazing the words that it suggests. People can usually tell when I am not using my laptop as every thing I write gets edited after it has been posted, and no matter how many times I change the default language to UK English the spellchecker begs to differ.
 
Duck59 said:
A murmuration of starlings...one of the great collective nouns. Our local starlings never really get beyond a mur.

Apropos of nothing, are spellcheckers not the most irritating things going? I was writing an article this afternoon and my spellchecker was quite happy with Herculaneum, but objected to Pompeii. Bizarre.
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I see that your profile says you have just had a book published! Well done! Can I ask what it is about?
 
Nonetheless, the original point remains reasonable. Surely Pompeii is much more widely known than Herculaneum?

A note on the danger of spellcheckers. A newspaper, the Yorkshire Post I believe, made some last minute changes a few years ago. It was around the time that Princess Diana was supposed to be having an affair with James Hewitt. He was usually referred to as an army major, but it turned out he was a captain. The paper did a multiple replace, only to discover to their horror that our prime minister had turned into John Captain.
 
Lullabelle said:
Our others left on Thursday, didn't even say goodbye. They were a nice couple, kept to themselves, we got on just fine so a bit miffed that they didn't tell us exactly when they were going.
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Maybe they forgot because of being preoccupied with the move?
 
Duck59 said:
Or not...it appears that there is a modern settlement with one i as opposed to the ancient one with two.
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Yes:
Screen Shot 2017-04-28 at 18.14.02.png
 
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